This invention concerns an apparatus for attracting and killing flies. This apparatus is particularly well suited for use around animals, specifically, horses.
As is commonly known, flies carry numerous harmful diseases. As such, flies threaten the health of not only humans, but animals as well. For example, flies are known to carry at least 60 viruses and parasites which infect the horse. Indeed, one disease carrying fly can infect an entire stable of horses.
Furthermore, the presence of flies in a stable has the effect of causing stress to the horses. Flies are an annoyance to horses much the same as they are an annoyance to humans. Horses, especially thoroughbreds, represent significant capital investments, not only for their purchase, but for their maintenance and upkeep as well. The presence of flies in the stables threatens this investment.
Attempts to eradicate flies usually center around the use of foggers or misters and even rubbing toxic pesticides on the horse's body. Constant and prolonged exposure to the toxins so used has a negative effect on horses. Indeed, it is believed that prolonged exposure to toxic pesticides may produce genetic damage.
Other approaches have been to provide a more effective trap to capture and/or kill the flies. U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,908 to Levey discloses an insect trap having an inner tube with holes passing through the tube walls. A sticky substance coats the outside of the tube. A tubular perforated housing surrounds the inner tube. A bag of attractant is placed within the inner tube. In use, insects are attracted to the odor of the attractant. The insects enter the trap through the perforations in the outer tubular housing and light upon the sticky substance on the outside of the inner tube. They become trapped upon this sticky substance and eventually die.
This trap is of limited effectiveness. More specifically, its effective range of attracting insects is small. This is because although the tube has perforations to allow the aroma of the essence to escape, the device has no means for actively diffusing the aroma. Additionally, the trap is useful only over a short period of time, because the sticky substance soon loses its effectiveness and the insects are allowed to escape. The trap is designed not to be reuseable and must be replaced often. This becomes very expensive.
A need exists, therefore, for a insect trap having a wide range for attracting insects, but is not offensive to humans or animals. Such an aparatus would be highly efficient, yet simple, self-contained and relatively economical to implement.